Conditional form of the verb

In English conditional is formed with the helping verb would (or sometimes could / should). Finnish language has it's own ending -isi for conditional. The ending is added between the stem and the personal ending as follows:

stem

conditional ending

personal ending

other optional suffixes

kysy

isi

n

kö

would I ask

Positive conditional

conditional conjugation, positive

Present singular

Present plural

minä kysyisin

I would ask

me kysyisimme

we would ask

sinä kysyisit

you would ask

te kysyisitte

you would ask

hän kysyisi

he/she would ask

he kysyisivät

they would ask

The stem is quite regular:

if the stem ends with i, you drop it (no double i), for example voida: voin : voisin (I could).

if the stem ends with a long vowel, it becomes short, for example jäädä : jään : jäisin (I would stay), especially in verb type 2.

if the stem ends with e, you drop it, for example lukea: luen : lukisin (I would read), especially with verb type 3.

Negative conditional

The idea in negative conditional is the same as in "normal" negative sentence: you use the negative verb (en, et, ei...) and the main verb without the personal enging, but with the conditional ending -isi.

conditional conjugation, negative

Present singular

Present plural

minä en kysyisi

I wouldn't ask

me emme kysyisi

we wouldn't ask

sinä et kysyisi

you wouldn't ask

te ette kysyisi

you wouldn't ask

hän ei kysyisi

he/she wouldn't ask

he eivät kysy

they wouldn't ask

When to use conditional?

Most typically conditinals are used in if-statements. Note, that in Finnish the verbs in both phrases are in contitional (unlike in English).